The direct purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationships among the elements in the learning styles and the differences of the learning styles on variables-schools, sexes, and academic achievements-and the indirect purpose is to obtain a clue in order for us to individualize the instruction through matching our teaching styles with student's learning styles based on the findings from the direct purpose.
The following questions are designed for this study :
1. Are there any correlations among each element of the learning styles?
2. Which elements are preferred or not preferred among each element of the learning styles by the variables?
3. Are t he differences in preferring each element of the learning styles and are they statistically significant on the variables?
4. Are there any differences in the profiles of the learning styles on variables-sexes and academic achievements-of a specific school?
To verify the above questions, Learning Style Inventory (LSI) by Dunns & Price was revised and the 25 elements were derived from it and the LSI was administered to the testees by the researcher. As the sample selected for this study, 712 testees were employed, 112 males and 112 females from the sixth grades in elementary schools, 129 males and 128 females from the third grades in middle schools, 112 males and 119 females from the third grade in high schools in the Pusan City areas.
To analyse the data, correlation coefficients, a t-test and T scores were calculated by SPSS subprograms, The findings of the present study are as follows :
First, the elements of the learning style are considered to be independant to each other because of a weak correlation coefficient among the elements.
Secondly, preferred elements by variables were little differences and the most chosen elements were 'adults (i.e. parents) motivated ', 'structure', 'quiet', 'self-motivated' in order. But non-preferred elements by variables were very different and the least chosen elements were 'food intake', 'dim light', 'varied ', 'in the late afternoon' in order.
Thirdly, the results of a t-test on average score of variables indicate that 17 cases were at the .10 level of significance, 12 cases were at the .05 level, and 24 cases were at the .01 level of significance.
Fourthly, the results of comparing the learning style profiles of the sex and academic achievement variables in a specific school are as follows :
1) In the elementary school, the learning style profile shows greater differences in the academic achievement variables than in the sex variables.
2) In the learning style profile of the middle school, girl-students show higher preference in all elements than boy-students and the learning style profile on academic achievement variables shows little differences in the most elements.
3) In the learning style profile of the high school, there are little differences between the sexes and among academic achievement variables.